


gilded glories and false idols

by NotSummer



Series: Life and Times of Henrietta Shepard [2]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Earthborn (Mass Effect), Gen, Heavy Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Introspection, Renegade Shepard (Mass Effect), Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 05:19:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12857598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotSummer/pseuds/NotSummer
Summary: The stories never quite capture the truth. It's not glamorous to leave in the sleepless nights, the nightmares, and the desperation. So the legends get edited.





	gilded glories and false idols

**Author's Note:**

> Had a similar fic for Dragon Age, and someone commented, and now I needed to write a similar one but for Shep. These women, man. They bear quite a lot on their shoulders.

Here is the Commander, standing tall and fierce against the Alliance’s enemies. You can see her dog tags glint in the sun, and you can see her back straight and her head held high.

This is the piece that’s missing: here is the girl who was lost, with no shoes and only bruised knuckles to show for her attempt to protect her sister.

Here is the N7, deadly and clever. You can see her red stripe and her logo on her chest.

This is the piece that’s missing: here is the teenager who sold herself for a meal to keep her sister alive and away from the dark alleys.

Here is the Spectre, swift and victorious. You don’t see her, only the trail of destruction she leaves behind.

This is the piece that’s missing: the anger and the rage that she keeps inside, that she can can help the Alliance, but it never helped her when she needed it.

After Alchera, the pieces are scattered, and the walls she keeps around her are cracked and fleeting.

The anger shows.

The violence shows.

The scars are gone, but you can see them now. See the first bullet wounds, dripping with blood that never congeals. See the first knife wounds, poisoned with something much more toxic than venom.

The walls build. Brick by brick by solemn brick, until there’s a bunker around the truth, hidden behind the gilded statue of herself.

The walls are built with names. Each person she’s failed, each time she wasn’t enough, they push her to be Commander Shepard.

Until the fortress is complete, and she’s no longer Shepard.

Here is the Commander, saving the galaxy once more, uniting its disparate peoples and leading them to victory.

This is the piece that’s missing: the girl who tried to protect others, at the cost of herself.


End file.
